Katarina is a complex assassin whose potential scales significantly with player experience. She's unique for relying more on mechanical skill and reset timing than macro understanding, making her deadliest when securing kills to chain her ability resets.

Core Mechanics

Passive - Insatiability

• 15-second cooldown reduction on abilities when damaging champions who die within 3 seconds
• Picking up daggers deals area magic damage that scales with AD, AP, and on-hit effects
• Damage increases with Katarina's level

Ability Priority

1. Q - Dancing Blade (3 points early)
2. E - Lightning Step (max first)
3. W - Preparation (max last)
4. R - Death Lotus (level at 6, 11, 16)

Key Combos

Standard All-in (No Ult): E → Q → W → AA → Collect W dagger → E to Q dagger → AA → AA → E → AA

All-in with Ultimate: E → Q → W → Ult → W collect dagger → E to Q dagger → AA → AA → E → AA

Optimal Build Path (AD On-Hit)

Starting Items:

• Long Sword + 3 Health Potions

Core Items:

• Blade of the Ruined King
• Kraken Slayer
• Death's Dance

Situational Items:

• Maw of Malmortius (vs AP)
• Guardian Angel (vs AD)
• Black Cleaver (vs Tanks)

Playstyle Tips

• Focus on punishing enemy mistakes
• Prioritize roaming over farming when possible
• Vary E positioning to avoid predictable patterns
• Master auto-attack resets with E for maximum damage
• Save ultimate for after enemy CC is used

Build Adaptation

• Against tanky teams: Prioritize AD on-hit items
• Against squishies: Consider AP build variation
• When ahead: Include defensive items for aggressive plays

This AD on-hit variant excels at sustained damage and benefits greatly from attack speed and on-hit effects, while still maintaining Katarina's signature reset-based playstyle.

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